Local health officials plan for flu epidemic/ Vaccine clinics at fairgrounds in November will be use

Darcie Loreno Published: September 27, 2006 12:00 AM

By DARCIE LORENOT-G Staff WriterLocal health and safety officials Tuesday met and hashed out details of planning that will dictate how the county would respond if faced with pandemic flu specifically avian flu or any other widespread medical emergency. With the county required to compile preparedness plans to deal with such an occurrence, those attending contributed their ideas, especially with security, for a smoother operation should it happen.The bottom line is that people are taken care of, said Julia Jones, Ashland County-City Health Department director of public health preparedness. According to Jones, the department must compile two different plans with a grant it receives each year from the Ohio Department of Health. The first is a Pandemic Flu Plan, which would deal with issues like quarantines and public safety should a pandemic hit the county. Jones said with avian flu now mostly passed to people only from birds it would take six months for an immunization to be developed and the plan would cover action during that time.The second is the Strategic National Stockpile Preparedness Plan. That plan deals with ordering and receiving the immunizations and distributing them in a mass clinic after those six months. Officials from Ashland Fire Department, Police Department, Sheriffs Office, Health Department, Samaritan Hospital, Red Cross and others will make up an Emergency Support Function Team, which will help with planning, input and help on issues like traffic and security so that our plans mesh, Jones said. At two previous meetings, some officials came up with a mass clinic plan which would deal with human-to-human flu along with the establishment of two Point of Dispensing/Vaccination Sites, or PODS, at the Ashland County Fairgrounds and Loudonville High School.Today was just a continued awareness of the kind of support we need when it comes to dealing with something that big, she said.Much of Tuesdays discussion was based on a mass clinic at the fairgrounds, the type of security that would be needed, how the operation would work and where. The department will conduct three public flu clinics two at the fairgrounds Nov. 3 and Nov. 9 as almost practice runs of the plan. It will be a big test, Jones said, adding anyone older than six months can get a shot this year. Limitations were set in years past due to immunization shortages.The group discussed how to handle high security that would be needed with a mass clinic, how to coordinate volunteers and how best to set up triage, where personal information would be collected for immunizations. They also talked about issues like weather, traffic and general chaos. This will be an ongoing plan, Jones said.The group decided to meet again Oct. 11 to go over more details and to think over suggestions made Tuesday. The big thing is to make people aware that there is a possibility and these are the things youre working on, Jones said. This is how you need to prepare yourself.n Darcie Loreno can be reached at 419-281-0581 ext. 237 or at dloreno@times-gazette.com.